Other Ghosts
by Hiiraeth
Summary: AU, or that Regeneration Remix. Rin is the only survivor of Team Minato. After the bridge and Obito, after Kiri and Kakashi, and after the Kyuubi takes Minato and Kushina away, Rin breathes on. She is now Konoha's only adult jinchuuriki. That makes her important to them, in the way a plow is important to a farmer. Isobu whispers, "I told you so." Eventual happy ending.


**Other Ghosts**

* * *

 **AU, Regeneration Re-mix. In this world, Kakashi died saving Rin from Kiri. Obito survived but was brainwashed by Madara into being his flunky.**

* * *

 _"Like other ghosts, she whispers; not for me to join her, but so that, when I'm close enough, she can push me back into the world." ― Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces_

* * *

Kakashi and Obito died protecting her. It's the fundamental truth of Rin's life, the one that rings in her ears when she is alone at night or has a close call on the battlefield.

They died to keep her safe.

She doesn't feel she deserves it.

After the bridge and Obito, after Kiri and Kakashi, and after the Kyuubi takes Minato and Kushina away, Rin breathes on. She is now Konoha's only adult jinchuuriki. That makes her important to them, in the way a plow is important to a farmer.

Isobu whispers, _I told you so_.

She was never shy as a child, despite her introverted nature, but now she has difficulty making friends. The friends she had before stop understanding her and eventually, stop trying.

(Gai tries the longest; he was never one for giving up. But when she sees him she sees Kakashi, smiling, because only Gai and Rin could ever make him.)

Sandaime says, "I don't want you to feel used," but uses her anyway. She enters the battlefield blazing with fury and grief for her lost boys. Afterwards, she cannot remember a single thing, aside from the burns on her arms.

Her friends stop talking to her altogether, for a time. Villagers avoid her in the streets. She is Kushina's paler shadow, washed out and angry. She does not consider visiting Kushina's boy, for fear of burning him.

The war ends. Rin doesn't. For a time, this is hard to accept.

(Gai starts talking to her again. She indulges him, because he's the only one who remembers her boys the way she does: hard-working, and so painfully young.)

.-.

She grows older and stronger without even trying. Sanbi feeds her growing body and her own natural chakra control does the rest. She makes jounin, and thinks her team would have been proud.

When she's eighteen, she tells Sandaime she will not remain cooped up in the village. If she is to be Konoha's weapon, she will do it on her terms. Sandaime looks older than she has ever seen him, but he ignores the Council's pleading and gives her his permission.

Rin leaves on her first solo A-rank the next day. She imagines Obito's excited cries and Kakashi's collected smiles. Gai grins and gives her a thumbs up. It's the closest she's come to feeling happy in years.

.-.

Time passes. She goes from Yondaime's precious student to demon container to Konoha's _Three-tails_ , said in that kind of hushed whisper they used to reserve for _White Fang's son_ , respect and fear fused together. Most shinobi stop avoiding her. The civilians still do. Kurenai comes knocking on her door one evening, her face tear streaked, and begs for Rin's forgiveness.

Rin gives it gladly. Life is better with friends, and prejudice is taught but can be unlearned. Kurenai has always been a quick study.

She has two friends, from then on. Gai and Kurenai do not understand each other, but they understand Rin. They understand why she avoids the Uchiha district and why she spends every September fifteenth locked up in her apartment. It's enough.

When she is twenty-one, Uchiha Itachi loses his mind and goes on a rampage. It's the middle of night, and there is no one to stop him. Obito's little old grandmother is one of his many victims. Rin wonders whether Obito could have saved his family, in a different life. She wonders if she could have, had she not been asleep.

There is only one survivor. A prodigy, with angry dark eyes that have seen entirely too much for his age. If Rin is Kushina's shadow, then the boy is Kakashi's. She asks Sandaime once what will happen to the boy, and then makes sure to stay away.

She cannot always run away from the past. She knows this, too. She tries anyway.

.-.

One evening when she is twenty-three, she goes grocery shopping and ends up saving a young boy from being kicked to the curb by the shop owner. He is so skinny and small, his face so grubby, that she hardly recognizes him at first. Then blue eyes meet brown, and it's like looking at Minato for the first time in years.

Naruto is ten years old, but his eyes are full of distrust when she kneels beside him to look at his scraped knee. He looks like his father but when he speaks it is as if Kushina has come back from the dead to haunt Rin.

"I just wanted some Ramen. I don't understand why he wouldn't let me buy it," he says, and Rin comes to another realization.

No one has told Uzumaki Naruto that he is jinchuuriki to the most powerful demon in the world. It makes Sanbi laugh. It makes Rin want to march up to Sandaime's office and kick him through the wall.

She walks the boy home instead, instant Ramen in her grocery bags.

"Hey lady?" He asks, when he's slurping down noodles, "how come you're nice to me?"

He hasn't thanked her for the food, but then no one has explained to him that he should. So Rin smiles, and says, "Because someone should."

The smile he returns is a shaky and frightful thing.

Rin makes it a point to visit him more often, after. She doesn't tell him he's a jinchuuriki right away, because he wouldn't understand it without understanding chakra, seals, and how none of it is his fault.

The more they speak the more he smiles, and the more he learns of basic manners and social cues. She learns he has a special tutor who is supposed to teach him these things, assigned by the Hokage, but when she stays over one afternoon and waits for the tutor to show up, no one comes.

Naruto shrugs, his shoulder still too thin. "It happens," he says, "it's okay."

It's not.

.-.

Umino Iruka is not a bad man, she discovers, when he saves Naruto's life barely two years later. He is, however, a fool, because he also gives a headband to a boy who barely understands the transformation technique.

"You were going to tell me, right?" Naruto asks Rin afterwards, their legs dangling off the Hokage cliff, a lollipop clenched tightly in his hand. "About Kyuubi?"

Rin closes her eyes and releases a long breath. "Yes. I just thought I could protect you for a little bit longer. Long enough for you to understand."

Naruto frowns and looks out across the village, because for all that he is loud and childish he also understands life in ways none of his peers do. "I get it. It's because you're like me, isn't it?"

And he grips the fabric over his stomach to leave no room for interpretation.

"… Yes. I am."

He nods, but doesn't look at her. After a moment, clammy fingers touch the back of her hand hesitantly, as if asking for permission. She grips his hand tightly. "It doesn't change who you are. It doesn't change anything. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise," she rasps.

(He forgives her for not telling, because that's who he is. Naruto is good and kind and brave, and one day, she knows, everyone will see it.)

.-.

Rin doesn't become team 7's teacher, because having two jinchuuriki and the last Uchiha on a single team would be asking for trouble. She does, however, tutor Naruto whenever he's home, because nobody else understands what it's like to be a jinchuuriki, not even Mitarashi Anko.

Anko doesn't do a bad job teaching team seven, on the whole, and she gets along with Naruto like a house on fire. She struggles more with arrogant Sasuke, whose insecurities she doesn't quite see, and Sakura, who is so very much the product of peace.

They only do low-ranking missions, Anko's natural recklessness curbed by the team's interpersonal struggles. There is no one to tell Sasuke _you're doing enough_ or to tell Naruto _he is struggling too, be patient_.

They are the only team of their year not to be entered into the _chunin_ exams. The boys are sick with jealousy, but Sakura seems relieved.

Rin watches from a distance, straying in and out of Naruto's life as required. She sits beside him in the arena as the boy from Suna loses his cool fighting Hyuuga Neji, and reveals his true nature to the world. Naruto's grip on her hand is painfully tight.

.-.

Rin loses sight of her charge in the battle that follows. She has a village to protect, and she already knows where Naruto will be headed. When she is sure the arena is clear of Oto shinobi, she summons Kakashi's old pack and lets them lead the way.

Sasuke tries to stop Naruto from meeting Gaara head-on. Sakura finds her courage protecting Sasuke from Gaara's sand. Naruto broadcasts his kindness into the world, radiating pain as he tries to get Gaara to understand the value of love, and is almost killed for his trouble.

In this world, Naruto hasn't faced true combat yet. Gaara has been fighting for years.

Rin interferes just before the killing blow, Sanbi roaring in her ears to be so close to both his brothers, and sees recognition in Gaara's eyes.

She also sees that the boy is crying, and that he looks at Naruto like it hurts just to stand next to him.

"There is another path for you," she says, because as much as she understands facing other people's hatred she has also known the acceptance of her friends, the begrudging respect of the village and the joy of teaching Naruto. "There is more to the world than just hate."

The boys are both crying by the time Naruto says, "I used to be just like you, until I found people who cared about me. I get it, I really do. If not for them, right now, I would be a monster too."

.-.

Sasuke encounters Orochimaru without anyone knowing, just before Sandaime is killed. He leaves the village shortly after, because there is no one to share his pain and no one to show him the kind of power that could convince him to stay.

(Rin wishes and wishes and wishes she had reached out to him, too.)

.-.

Naruto's godfather shows up thirteen years late and a few apologies short, but Naruto likes him and Jiraiya wants to make up for his many shortcomings by training the boy and finding Tsunade in the process.

He also brings information of an organization set on capturing all jinchuuriki. Jiraiya is uncharacteristically grave when he tells Rin, and meet her eyes for first time in years. His are filled with regret when he says, "you be careful too, kiddo – they would have wanted you to be safe."

Rin cannot convince Naruto to stay. The night he leaves is the first time she's cried in years.

.-.

Despite Akatsuki's threat looming on the horizon, time passes slowly without Naruto by her side.

.-.

They come from her when she's on a mission, the red-haired god and his blue-haired angel. Her team is killed in seconds. She knows this is a battle she cannot win.

She tries, anyway. For Naruto's sake.

.-.

She wakes up in a cave. It's a familiar sight, though not a welcome one. A man sits a short distance away from her, elbows on his knees and his masked face hanging down.

"Sometimes," he says, without introduction, "I can remember flashes from another life. A life where I was not Madara, but something else. Someone else. These flashes, they only last for a few hours. Short periods of lucidity, I suppose. But I saw you and I remembered. I remember your kindness, and your smile. I remember Bakashi, who was stupidly brave. I remember what really mattered."

He takes his mask off and smiles at her breathless expression. "I'll forget again, in a few hours. Madara did his job too well. But there's something I can do, before that happens. I can save you, and this world with it. But you won't like it. Not right away. You see, to save you, I will have to kill you. But you will come to understand. Perhaps one day, you will even forgive me for it."

And Obito, dear Obito, caresses her cheek with aching tenderness, before his eye twists and spins into an unfamiliar pattern and the world goes dark.

.-.

Rin wakes up to find herself in a mirror world. Everything is the same, and yet completely different.

The first thing she discovers is that three years have passed since she was captured. Konoha must think her dead. Naruto must think her dead. She aches for him.

There is a strange void where Sanbi is supposed to be. When she visits him in his cage, he is uncharacteristically quiet. "He moved us to another world," the demon says, awe in his voice. "I can sense another version of me."

"I don't understand," Rin says.

"What," Sanbi starts slowly, "do you know about parallel universes?"

.-.

She runs to Konoha, when he finishes his explanation. She runs and runs and runs, fear and excitement warring for dominance in her heart.

 _They might still be alive they might still be alive alive alive alive_ , it chants.

Because dear Obito would not send her to a world that was worse than the one she had come from.

She is stopped at the gates, of course. That's okay. She can tell what is different with a single look.

The village was damaged, badly, at one point. It lies in a crater and is filled with new and unfamiliar buildings. The uniforms are different, too, and yet she still recognizes Izumo and Kotetsu. Next to Minato's face on the mountain is Tsunade, proud and fierce. Someone, somehow, had dragged her back home, in this world. Like Naruto had wanted to.

Next to Tsunade's face is Kakashi's.

It's obviously still new, men on scaffolding working on the finishing touch, but it's there. He's there.

He's alive.

Her knees buckle and she does not resist the patrol coming to arrest her.

.-.

Kakashi looks at her as though she is a ghost. In a way, perhaps, she is.

In this world, he explains, she was the one who died, after Sanbi.

He and Obito saw everything. They both lost themselves, albeit in different ways.

Rin's heart aches for her world's Obito, who never desired destruction but was forced into it, lost even though he was still alive. She also aches for this world's Obito, so angry and twisted and _wrong_.

She cannot comprehend how her death might have turned him into a monster.

This world's Kakashi is...

He _is_. He's older now, his voice a deep baritone and shoulders broad and strong. He wears the _Rokudaime_ on his back well. The beginnings of crow's feet have appeared around his eyes.

There are shadows in his eyes that she has seen in the mirror many times.

They hug for a long time, once her cuffs come off. It feels weird, unnatural, and his body feels rigid in her grip. Neither of them wish to let go.

.-.

He tells her everything, in the end. She tells him everything, too. They're both crying when they finish.

.-.

She moves in with him because she has nowhere else to go, and they don't like to be apart for long. His advisers look uncertain, but Kakashi looks more sure of their decision than she's ever seen him in the past.

.-.

Naruto doesn't understand why she hugs him, the first time they meet. He doesn't understand when she cries and tells him how proud she is, of this boy who is so much like her Naruto and yet so much more, but he smiles and hugs her back anyway.

(She misses her Naruto with a fierce ache, always will, but she loves this him too. Her boy is strong in whatever world he finds himself in. He will be okay.)

.-.

This world's Kurenai is a widowed mother and this world's Gai was left paralyzed by the war, but they fall back in together like nothing ever happened.

.-.

Kakashi has changed, and so has Rin. He's funny and laid-back where he used to be cold and rigid. He reads terrible books and makes puns that have Naruto doubling up in laughter and Sakura rolling her eyes and declaring him 'lame'. He never tries to be cool. He's never cruel. He leads Konoha like he was born to do it.

Yet sometimes, when he gives her an awkward smile or enters a social situation he has no idea how to navigate, she sees a little something of the boy he used to be.

It's not difficult at all fall in love with him again.

.-.

She loves this new world as much as she misses the old one. Whenever she feels that ache of loss, she looks at kakashi's chest as it falls and rises with his breathing.

It helps, a little.

.-.

This world's Obito ended up changing the world for the worse.

Her world's Obito used his one lucid moment to get Sanbi out of Akatsuki's reach forever, destroying Juubi in the process.

It is difficult to reconcile the one with the other.

.-.

(When Kakashi and Rin's son is born, she thinks of her Obito and forgives him.)

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 **AN**

 **Thoughts? Comments?**

 **I'm kind of proud of this one.**

 **Couple of notes:**

 **\- Kakashi was chosen for team 7 for his power level, his personal history and his Sharingan. Although I think Anko would have pulled through eventually, her lower power level would have meant the team couldn't go out on the same risky missions as early as they did (special jounin vs renowned ANBU captain/jounin. Sorry girl). Without the land of waves arc, they wouldn't have been able to prove their own abilities in time for the chunin exams. Sasuke would not have met Snake man until later. Shippuden Anko and Sasuke obviously have a lot more in common.**

 **\- I figure since Rin has one of the low-ranking bijuu she would be one of the first Akatsuki would go after. Since her powers were very well developed, her captors ended up being Pain and Konan. She did not sell her skin easily.**

 **\- The three year gap was caused by the parallel universe jump. Think of it as the cost for such a powerful move. Rin's World's Obito was likely killed by Madara for his trouble, poor guy, but made sure Juubi could never be assembled in his world.**

 **\- Rin's Naruto is devastated by Rin's disappearance, but ultimately ends up in a place very similar to Canon Naruto. Her disappearance is the equivalent of Jiraiya's death, which doesn't happen in his world. Tsunade still becomes Godaime. Naruto is Rokudaime.**


End file.
